乞力马扎罗山：赋予中国女性新面貌

文/王儒

乞力马扎罗山：赋予中国女性新面貌

文/王儒

Chinese women climb Kilimanjaro

登山队成员在坦桑尼亚乞力马扎罗山脚下

各行各业的中国中年女性下班后能干什么呢？去做个美发或者去购个物吗？

去非洲旅行，攀登乞力马扎罗山怎么样？

12名来自各行各业的中国女性，年龄从37到54不等，组成了一个登山队，其中有律师事务所合伙人，一名电视制作人和几个企业家。她们共花了120多个小时，成功登顶乞力马扎罗山最高峰。

她们称自己为“中国第一支女性业余登山队”。在登顶乞力马扎罗山后，她们又在计划下一场旅行，要去征服其它大洲上的最高峰。

这次登山队的组织者王建梅今年43岁，是北京一个旅游杂志的主编，她提出这个计划是因为她意识到现在大城市的职业女性的需求。

What can middle-aged professional women do after work? Visit the hair-dresser or go shopping?

How about traveling to Africa and climbing the peak of Kilimanjaro?

12 Chinese women between 37 and 54, from different professions including a partner in a law firm, a TV producer and entrepreneurs, spent over 120 hours climbing to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.

Dubbing themselves “the first amateur women’s mountaineering team in China”, they have begun to plan their next adventures climbing the highest mountains on other continents.

Wang Jianmei, 43, editor-in-chief of a tourism magazine in Beijing, the organizer of the special climbing team, proposed the trip because she saw the growing need of professional women in big cities.

王建梅说：“我们这样的女人事业和家庭都处理得很好。但有时候我们也会压力很大，精疲力竭，会很渴望逃离日常生活，用一种完全不同的方式找寻自我。”

登山队中两名成员因为高原反应只爬到了4600米。剩下的10位女性在一个大风夜出发，攀上岩石峭壁，还赶上了一场突如其来的冰雹。但最终，她们登上了乞力马扎罗山的最高峰，冰雪覆盖的乌呼鲁峰。

和其他成功登顶的登山者一样，这10位女性也得到了乞力马扎罗国家公园颁发的证书。

游客和登山者攀登乞力马扎罗山可以选择不同的路线。尽管没有攀登喜马拉雅山那么有挑战性，但乞力马扎罗山海拔高、温度低、气候变化多端，攀登这个非洲之脊也是困难重重，充满危险。

想要攀登乞力马扎罗山的人必须保证他们身体素质很好，并准备配套装备。 最近几年，也有关于因攀登乞力马扎罗山造成的意外死亡，大部分人是因为低体温症和岩石滑坡。

“对于我们来说，最大的挑战不是山峰，而是我们自己。我们要相信在我们这个年纪，依旧可以迎接登山的挑战，”王建梅说，“除了10年前在北京爬过香山外，我还从没爬过山。”

“大家都说爬乞力马扎罗山并不十分困难，但我们也必须做好充分准备。我读过海明威的《乞力马扎罗山的雪》，但我之前一点都不爱运动，更不用说爬一座大陆的最高峰了。”电视制作人秦蕾说。

12名女性先是开始散步和游泳，然后开始接受专业登山运动员的体能训练。

庄严今年54岁，是一名律师，也是该登山队中年纪最大的人。她这样描述自己站在5900米高度上的感受：“感觉像分娩一样，会感到疼痛和害怕，但最后等待你的是巨大的喜悦。”

“Women like us handle career and family well, but sometimes we feel so stressed and exhausted that we have a strong desire to escape from routine life and discover ourselves, in a totally different ways.” Wang says.

Due to altitude sickness, two members quit at 4,600 meters. The remaining 10 women set out in the windy night, tramped over rocky cliffs and advanced through a sudden hailstorm. Finally, they reached the snow-covered Uhuru summit, the highest point of Kilimanjaro.

The 10 women, like other climbers who reach the summit, received certificates from the Kilimanjaro national park.

Kilimanjaro offers seven different routes for tourists and climbers. Though not as challenging as climbing the Himalayas, the high elevation, low temperature and changeable weather makes climbing the roof of Africa a difficult and dangerous trek.

People who want to climb Kilimanjaro need to ensure that they are physically capable and properly equipped.

Some deaths of climbers have been reported in recent years on Kilimanjaro, most due to hypothermia and rock slides.

“For us, the biggest challenge was not the mountain but ourselves, our confidences to meet the challenge in our ages,”Wang says, “I hadn’t climbed any mountain except the Fragrant Hill (in Beijing) 10 years ago.”

“People often say that climbing Kilimanjaro is not very hard, but we must be well-prepared.”

“I read Hemingway’s The Snows of Kilimanjaro, but I refused almost any sport, let alone climbing up one of the highest mountains.” says Qin Lei, a TV producer .

The 12 women took up jogging and swimming and received physical training .

“It felt like giving birth. You suffered from pain and fear in the process, but the ultimate happiness at that moment is incomparable.” Zhuang Yan, 54, a lawyer and the oldest member in the team, describes the feeling standing at the peak’s altitude of 5,900 meters.

登山队成员登顶后合影